Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel was granted bail Thursday and expected to be released from prison while prosecutors in Connecticut appeal a ruling giving him a new trial in the 1975 slaying of neighbor Martha Moxley.

Skakel, the 53-year-old nephew of Robert F. Kennedy's widow, Ethel, touched his hand to his chest and looked back at his supporters in the courtroom, his brothers among them, as the judge set bail at $1.2 million. He has been in prison more than 11 years on a sentence of 20 years to life but was expected to be freed shortly after the hearing in Stamford Superior Court.

As conditions of the bail, the judge ordered that Skakel live in Connecticut and wear a GPS tracking device. His lawyer said moments after the hearing ended that Skakel was "very happy" about the outcome.

The case should NEVER been have been tried since there was no evidence. It is only because of Skakel's very, very peripheral connections to the Kennedy family that he ever went to trial at all. It was seen as payback for "his" family's supposed transgressions for the tragic accident at Chappaquiddick and the rape acquittal of William Kennedy Smith.